An unusual case of recurrent pneumonia.

A gentleman, aged 54, with shunted hydrocephalus presented with recurrent chest infections. He had a ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt inserted when he was 38 years old for obstructive hydrocephalus due to a cerebellar tumour, with no subsequent shunt revisions since. Over a 2-year period, he presented with three episodes of pneumonia, which, on each occasion, responded well to antibiotics but then subsequently recurred.

The World Health Organization's 'Surgical Safety Checklist': should evidence-based initiatives be enforced in hospital policy?

Objectives: To assess the awareness and voluntary usage of the World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist (WHO SSC), just prior to its mandatory implementation.

Design: Questionnaire-based, prospective, telephone survey.

Setting: Patients are exposed to systematic risks and principles of surgical safety are inconsistently applied even in sophisticated settings.